That winter the Tsar remained in seclusion at Tsarskoe Selo and rarely left his quarters and spent his evenings in his wife's boudoir with Anna and the family. Visitors noticed a marked change in the Tsar and were worried about him. Alexandra held up under the strain. Rasputin had always told her that her son would die and she would lose her crown if Rasputin died. Alexandra had Anna moved into an apartment in the Alexander Palace since she was receiving threatening mail since the assassination. Alexandra and Nicholas continued to receive reports about Protopopov.

The murder of Rasputin changed nothing in the Russian government. Sturmer had been replaced. Protopopov still had the confidence of the Empress, and most of the other ministers barely mattered to her. A visitor to the palace, General Sir Henry Wilson, who had known Alexandra since she was...